Thursday Stuff

Remember when I said I’d pop up every so often with a video? Well, I give you the following (mostly ginned-up BS, I realize – Rachel uses more polite language than I would, which is one reason why I’ll never host a cable news show)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and this was recommended to me by the young one (the “teenage one” just about now) – good for him.

Just A Song Before I Go

Yep, the hiatus starts now – I may pop up from time to time with a video, but I’m not sure at this point. I’ll make a note of developments about this blog as warranted by events.

In the meantime, I’ve been looking for a way to work this in, and I think this is as good a time as any, describing what I’ve tried to be about here, though I know I’ve fallen short at times (I’d prefer the original by John Wesley Harding, but since I can’t, I’ll settle for this, which is a pretty good cover).

Sunday Stuff

Minnesota Dem Governor Mark Dayton might as well be talking about our beloved commonwealth (here)…



…and I dedicate this to David Frei and the Westminster Kennel Club for dropping Pedigree as a sponsor to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, apparently because Westminster had a problem with Pedigree’s ads encouraging adoption of non-pedigreed dogs (here) – what, do you think your audience will object to non-pampered pooches? Are they all supposed to be Disney characters or something?

“Show me an ad with a dog with a smile; don’t try to shame me,” Mr. Frei told The A.P. The kennel club had expressed its concerns to Pedigree, he said, adding, “We told them that, and they ignored us.”

WAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

I hope an adopted dog finds Frei’s leg one day and mistakes it for a fire hydrant.

More Saturday Stuff

Kudos to Dem U.S. House Rep Luis Gutierrez for this; nothing like speaking truth to stupid, is there…



…and all this business with the Catholic Church up in arms over contraception coverage made me recall this item from The Eternal George Carlin (bad word alert)…



…and here is my response to the latest Breitbart meltdown (hey, we lefties can play the “let’s doctor the videotape to make it look as incriminating as possible” game too)…



…and this is awful news – my sympathies to the family and friends of Whitney Houston.

Saturday Stuff

Do we? Sometimes I wonder (here)…



…and the whole “Cal Thomas saying something typically stupid and full of red meat for the CPAC wingnuts against Rachel Maddow” thing ended up moving a little faster than I could comment on it in real time, but I’m going to say something now anyway (here).

To begin, I give Thomas credit for being enough of a man to stand up and admit that he made a pretty childish mistake, though I wonder if he would have done that if Greta Van Susteren of Fix Noise hadn’t come to Maddow’s defense. However, I think we need to remember that Thomas fancies himself as some sort of pundit moralist who, if he had been that indeed, would have known reflexively to stand up to intolerance instead of catering to it, as he did at CPAC.

In that vein, as noted here (digging into the Wordpress archives), Thomas once praised the “worship experience” of former president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn at the First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., even though he once described our 39th president as something that “stinks as badly as a perishable item that has passed its ‘sell-by’ date.”

Given the Maddow dustup and some of Thomas’s past calumnies (including the item noted above), I think he needs to reread the scripture passage stating that “he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted”…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and I had planned to include this video since the name of this band echoes what I think of Thomas, but I’m including it even though he apologized because I like the tune anyway...



…and happy 50th birthday to Sheryl Crow.

Thursday Stuff

This combines Black History Month with more bad conduct from the banksters, though we can do something about it…



…and kudos to Ron Johnson (the good one) of J.C. Penney for standing up here (along with Ellen DeGeneres)…



…and in a related story, I’d been so preoccupied with the utterly manufactured “issue” of contraception offered in health insurance for Catholic institutions (I’m sure more screeching drivel on this subject from Christine Flowers will attack our sensibilities on this tomorrow) that I’d forgotten about Prop 8 in California…

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

…and happy 70th birthday to Carole King.

Wednesday PM Stuff

I know I called Florida the Land of Duh a little while ago, and after this whole dustup over the Catholic Church and contraception, I realize that I was being waay too limited in my geographic scope.

In an attempt to dispatch with this idiocy as soon as possible, I give you the following:

This tells us that Charles Chaput, head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is of course speaking out in protest, desperate for any opportunity to move the spotlight from the hideous recent school closings.

This, despite the fact that contraception coverage is provided at other Catholic institutions (here, including this one).

Also, this is despite the fact that contraception coverage is supported by a majority of Catholics (here).

Oh, and Willard Mitt Romney once supported the contraception coverage he now opposes (here), and good for Obama for bashing him on it (here).

And for good measure, I give you Rachel Maddow and that Repug presidential candidate with a Google problem here…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and I know Little Ricky and his pals don’t “do” irony, but I’m presenting this anyway.

Mikey's "TRAIN In Vain" And Other Follies, Part 3

(Part One including the setup is here, and Part Two is here...this may be the last regular post before the hiatus, or at best the next-to-last one.)

So, how about if we move on with Mikey’s mailer from last month…

Serving Our Veterans

HR 2433, Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act of 2011
HR 1392, Introduced the Fairness to Veterans Act of 2011
HR 178, Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act
HR 333, Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act
HR 2534, Ensuring America’s Promises Act of 2011
HR 2349, Veterans Benefits Training Improvement Act of 2011
HR 2074, Veterans Sexual Assault Prevention and Health Care Enhancement Act

I couldn’t find anything controversial about these bills, though, in the matter of our veterans, I would ask once more why Mikey voted against both a combat pay raise and a bill guaranteeing pay to our military in the event of a government shut down, noted here.

Also, though Mikey’s support of the above-noted bills appears to be commendable, it would be nice if he would sign on as a co-sponsor to this also.

The next section of Mikey’s mailer has to do with his efforts to try and repeal health care reform, which, by itself, automatically disqualifies him from serving in Congress as far as I’m concerned.

Protecting The Environment

HR 1964, Conservation Easement Incentive Act of 2011
Opposed HR 2018, Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act

I can’t find anything wrong with HR 1964 (Local Repug Jim Gerlach is a co-sponsor with Dem Mike Thompson of California, as noted here). And as noted here, Mikey was wise to oppose HR 2018, which basically is a gift to polluters and guts the Clean Water Act.

Fitzpatrick also voted to ensure that new drilling environmental safety studies are conducted and updated regulations are put in place to protect the Gulf of Mexico (Amendments to HR 1 and HR 2354). That’s nice, but it’s a shame that Mikey didn’t bother to point out that he voted to continue taxpayer subsidies for big oil here. Also, as noted here from last May, Mikey blamed Obama for the rise in oil prices, even though energy experts say such a claim is not credible, partly because oil production increased under Obama, as noted here.

Government Reform

Fitzpatrick co-sponsored Repug U.S. House Rep Mike Coffman’s HR 2913 bill (here), which terminated a member of Congress’s ability to pay into a defined benefit pension plan. That’s a good step, although, as noted here, members of Congress currently pay about 1.3 percent of their salaries into their retirement, described as “puny” by Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe (and I agree with that characterization).

Of course (again, noted by Jacoby), if Congress wanted to get serious about their compensation, they could have acted on the bill by former Dem Rep Gabrielle Giffords to flat-out cut congressional salaries by 5 percent. Their response?

Cue the sound of crickets…

Also, HR 187 from Joe “You Lie” Wilson eliminates automatic pay raises, but of course it doesn’t touch COLAs (which, as we know, many of us in that glorious private sector upon which the Repugs heap so much praise aren’t able to receive).

Maximizing Domestic Energy Production

HR 1230, Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act
HR 1229, Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act
HR 1231, Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act
HR 2021, the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011
HR 1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act
HR 3410, the Energy Security and Transportation Jobs Act

(Now we’re going to get back to what the Repugs do best. And I don’t mean that in a good way.)

As noted here in response to HR 1230…

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) opposed the bill: “One year ago today, we were 2 weeks into the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We were 2 weeks into what would ultimately become the worst environmental disaster in our Nation's history, with more than 4 million barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf. And since that disaster, we have learned many things about the safety of offshore drilling….We learned that the oil companies had neither the resources nor the ability to stop a deepwater blowout. BP spill response included an attempt to shoot golf balls and bits of rubber into the well. When we were told that the industry was relying on the most sophisticated technologies, we assumed that they meant technologies developed by MIT and not the PGA….And yet here we are debating legislation that would do nothing to improve the safety of offshore drilling and could actually make drilling less safe. The legislation before us represents a return to the pre-spill mentality of speed over safety.”

Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) also opposed the bill: “I rise in strong opposition to this oil spill amnesia bill that threatens our coastal communities….The bill sidesteps safety and environmental reviews, acting as if the Nation's worst oil spill in history never happened. And, it pushes a failed energy plan that pours billions of dollars into already overstuffed oil industry coffers. The only thing it adds up to… is a false promise. The truth is the Republican majority is hoping to delude the public into believing that this rush to new offshore drilling will provide a quick fix to high gas prices, but the harsh reality is this: The U.S. is never going to have control over world oil supplies or gas prices through drilling. We simply don't have the oil reserves, no matter how much we drill. What we do have is the ability to control prices by lowering our consumption, and that's just what we're starting to do.”

And as noted here in response to HR 1229, this is still more overreach by this Congress, trying to tell an executive-branch agency what to do, in this case telling the EPA to review 40 drilling permit applications within 60 days (and what exactly does this have to do with job creation again – I probably could have said more about this last May, but didn’t…my bad).

Continuing, this tells us the following about 1231…

This drill-only bill mandates the most sweeping expansion of offshore drilling in our nation’s history – making broad swaths of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts open for leasing automatically.

And by the way, as noted here, the BP spill victims (remember them?) continue to suffer (and as noted here, Mikey voted against a Democratic motion to H.R. 1231 to prohibit energy companies from selling abroad the outer continental shelf oil and natural gas they extract under federal leases).

So what of HR 2021? Well, Henry Waxman, ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, tells us the following (here)…

“The legislation is not about creating jobs. It is not about lowering gasoline prices. It is a giveaway to the oil industry that will increase pollution along our coasts….There are many flaws in the legislation. It allows huge increases in air pollution from oil and gas drilling activities by moving the point of measurement from the drill ship to the shore….The legislation eliminates the Environmental Appeals Board from the permitting process, even though it is a cheaper, faster, and more expert substitute for judicial review. And it requires all challenges to air permits to be raised before the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., thousands of miles away from the affected communities. Claims that this legislation will reduce gas prices or the budget deficit are nonsense. They have no substantiation. There are sensible improvements we could make, but we aren't making them. Instead, this bill waives environmental requirements and short-circuits permitting reviews at the expense of public health.”

Further, this is a response to HR 1938, which is basically an attempt to rush through a decision on the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline before an environmental review has been completed.

Oh, and about the supposed job creation associated with this project, I give you the following once more…



Finally, as noted here by Dem U.S. House Rep Ed Markey of MA once more on HR 3410, “(the bill) contains a dangerous provision to share offshore drilling revenues with coastal states, which has the potential to actually increase the deficit over the long term.”

There’s some other ripe stuff in Mikey’s mailer from last month that I probably won’t be able to get to, though I will note his support of HR 140, which would end birthright citizenship in this country (and as noted here, this would involve repealing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution; in addition to the fact that the amendment has pretty much been enshrined in settled law by now, trying to repeal it is really stupid public policy).

I think that the three posts related to our congressman’s 2011 report card, or whatever, provides ample reason to support the Democratic alternative in this fall’s election, who happens to be Kathy Boockvar – to help her out, click here.

Wednesday AM Stuff

See what you’re voting for, all you nitwits in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota (here)? God, are parts of this country stoo-pid…



…and I know I praised the Eastwood Super Bowl ad the other day, and I stand by that, but I think the following should be noted from here too…



…“Worst Persons” (Uber-lobbyist and wingnut Rick Berman tries to pass himself off as a “union member” in one of his anti-union ads – once again, you’d have to be a stone cold moron to trust these people; Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association – not representing my family, I hasten to add – takes on the dreaded scourge of Ellen DeGeneres…and yes, I’m being tongue-in-cheek – also, nice work by J.C. Penney; but Repug Florida State Rep Rachel Burgin takes top “honors” for being too dumb to remove the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, notation from the bill she proposed, allegedly on her own…more here)…



…and this goes out to Rep. Burgin (the gender thing doesn’t completely work, I realize, but you get the idea).

Monday Stuff

“Worst Persons” (K.O. is back to tell us of Charles Payne somehow trying to claim that, well, y’know, poor people really aren’t poor because they get gout…OK, genius, let me clue you in on something – this hits me where I live because, in addition to the causes for the affliction that Keith mentions, namely diet and hypertension, there is also a hereditary component to it, and as someone who has suffered with it from time to time, I can testify that it can attack ANYONE regardless of income; Repug Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White, from the political party that has made a living from yelling about the virtually nonexistent threat of voter fraud, gets convicted of – wait for it! – VOTER FRAUD, and faces 3 to 18 years in the gray bar hotel – nice work; but Repug U.S. House Rep John Fleming of Louisiana takes top “honors” for taking a story on The Onion seriously about Planned Parenthood and abortion, though the three percent figure is correct (here, Fleming claimed the teabaggers are getting a bad rap from those dastardly libs, and here, he blamed Obama for our troop withdrawal from Iraq when it was negotiated under the SOFA, and he also cried poor mouth since he could ONLY make 400 grand as a U.S. House Rep – you Louisiana voters who elected this meat sack must be so proud)...



…and speaking of abortion, I think this is a good opportunity to put up this tune – sorry, no video; I’m sure Hendrix had no political inclination whatsoever behind it.

More Sunday Stuff

God, is Pete Hoekstra a moron...



Update 2/6/12: I guess I was so pissed off by the stupidity of Hoekstra's ad that I didn't pick up on the contradiction of someone who claims to be a fiscally prudent Repug running the most expensive possible ad that he could - fortunately, mcjoan did here.

…and by the way, here is more Hoekstra stupidity (a response is here)…



…and after viewing the ridiculous, I now give you the sublime (from here – apparently, both these ads aired during that football game tonight - not the biggest fan of Eastwood's politics, but this is still great stuff; like to see the Pats lose for personal reasons, by the way)…



…and for no particular reason, I give you this tune.

Sunday Stuff

I’ve disagreed with Fareed Zakaria plenty of times, but as far as I’m concerned, he is one of the handful – fistful, actually – of conservatives that I take seriously, precisely because of commentary such as this…



…and yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the debut of “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac, with some great songs depicting often dysfunctional relationships, including this one.

Thursday Stuff

So it looks like Health Shuler will now try to be mediocre in another occupation (here) – I love the way he said here after the 2010 debacle, basically, that Nancy Pelosi should step down as House minority leader, but then say that he’s “not here to cast stones”; what a weasel…



…and speaking of job changes, I’ve been putting this off for a little while, but I really can’t do that anymore.

Basically, this blog is going to go on a hiatus of sorts in about a week or so, sometime around the 13th or 14th I think. Is this the end? Maybe. I’ll have more to say about this later, but basically, I’ve obtained another professional opportunity that is going to demand a lot more of my time, to the point where I’ll have to step back from this a bit and see where I am. I’ll just briefly point out that I’ve put some career stuff on the “back burner” a bit to keep this going since I started doing this (about 5902 on the Blogger posts to go with 739 posts at the Wordpress site), but I can no longer do that. Again, I’ll have more to say later.

But for now, I give you the advice in the title of this song (sorry, no video).

Wednesday Stuff

Oh, and by the way, to do something about the atrocity discussed below by David Shuster and Lizz Winstead, click here (the person Winstead is discussing is Karen Handel, hired as a vice president for the Susan G. Komen foundation last year who won the Palin endorsement – more here)…



Update 2/2/12: More here and here...

Update 2/3/12: Great news here!

…and gee, if we’re “termites,” then does that make you clowns “dung beetles”? Fair is fair (here)…



…and how dare that silly Josh Fox go and exercise his first amendment rights, along with ABC, as noted here…



…and RIP Don Cornelius – what a shame that he appears to have come to a troubled end…



…bringing the mood up-tempo a bit once more I guess, happy 70th birthday to Terry Jones (not that Koran-burning idiot)…



…and happy 30th anniversary to David Letterman; my favorite era of the show was the period highlighted in the clip below.

Tuesday Stuff

Looks like Willard Mitt conquered the Land of Duh tonight, where they vote for Allen West, Daniel Webster (over Alan Grayson), Cliff Stearns (one of the fools responsible for this nonsense) and Lex Luthor Scott, which makes me recall the following recent “New Rule” from Bill Maher…



Update 2/3/12: Oh, and when it comes to Florida and stupid politicians, I forgot about this rocket scientist.

…and gosh darn it, I’m just a great big silly head for forgetting PA’s former senator from Northern Virginia, so please allow me to try and make amends here; I hope his daughter is doing better, but where is Smerky’s column calling for Little Ricky to drop out using the same rationale the intrepid Inky columnist once used arguing for John Edwards to give up because Elizabeth was sick…



…and for those who argue that I have a cartoonish point of view, I submit the following :-)…



…and on this day in 1967, while taking a break from the filming of the Strawberry Fields Forever promotional video at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent, John Lennon buys an 1843 poster from an antiques shop in Surrey which will provide him with many of the lyrics for "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite."

And by the way, this Wikipedia article tells us the following about how the tune was recorded, including the following…

The Beatles first used samples of other music on "Yellow Submarine", the samples being added on 1 June 1966. The brass band solo was constructed from a Sousa march by George Martin and Geoff Emerick, the original solo was in the same key and was transferred to tape, cut into small segments and re-arranged to form a brief solo which was added to the song.[35]

A similar technique was used for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" on 20 February 1967. To try to create the atmosphere of a circus, Martin first proposed the use of a calliope (a steam-driven organ). Such was the power of the Beatles within EMI that phone calls were made to see if a calliope could be hired and brought into the studio. However, only automatic calliopes, controlled by punched cards, were available, so other techniques had to be used. Martin came up with taking taped samples from several steam organ pieces, cutting them into short lengths, "throwing them in the air" and splicing them together. It took two trials; in the first attempt, the pieces coincidentally came back in more or less original order.

If you ever get a chance to watch “The Compleat Beatles” (and yes, I know it has been out for awhile now), Martin describes this process pretty well, for what it’s worth.

Tuesday Mashup (1/31/12)

It’s been a little while since I checked in with the Fix Noise BS factory (with an assist from the equally wretched “Daily Tucker”), but based on this, it’s still “same old, same old”…

Concerned that too many “deniers” are in the meteorology business, global warming activists this month launched a campaign to recruit local weathermen to hop aboard the alarmism bandwagon and expose those who are not fully convinced that the world is facing man-made doom.

The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.

If that were actually true, then how do they bother to explain the following (from here)…

The smear allegation is disturbing and important to dispense with first. Presumably (Jason Samenow of the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, echoing a similar charge) is referring to the fact that we have included quotations from climate change-denying meteorologists on our site. As yet, not one of those quoted has suggested that we have misrepresented their views. Indeed, many of these TV meteorologists are openly proud to be considered deniers. They say so on air, online, in emails to us, and in their affiliation with prominent denial sites like Icecap. Compiling a careful count of weather reporters who reject the scientific consensus on climate change hardly qualifies as a smear campaign. In fact, there are many weather reporters we have researched that we believe fall in the denial camp, but we have not quoted on our site because we do not have sufficient evidence.

There’s a lot more information about the “Forecast the Facts” campaign from the Think Progress post; it definitely makes for interesting reading.

Next, I give you more corporate media hand-wringing here on the issue of so-called “Right to Work” legislation…

The battle over the right-to-work issue may be reaching a conclusion in Indiana as the state prepares to adopt its law, but the argument over exactly what the measure means for a state's economy is likely to rage on, unresolved, as it has for 70 years.

Since the 1940s, 22 states have passed laws barring unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers for labor representation. Supporters, mostly Republicans, insist the measure helps create a pro-business climate that attracts employers and increases jobs. Opponents say the law only leads to lower wages and poorer quality jobs.

The evidence on the issue is abundant, but also conflicting and murky. The clearest conclusion, according to many experts, is that the economies of states respond to a mix of factors, ranging from the swings in the national economy to demographic trends, and that isolating the impact of right-to-work is nearly impossible.

Oh, please – in response, I give you the following from here (centered on Indiana, where former Bushie and current Repug governor Mitch Daniels is the last to try and foist the “right to work” scam)…

Not only have ‘right-to-work’ laws been found to reduce wages while not stimulating job growth in states that adopt them, this week’s Economic Snapshot shows Right-to-Work (RTW) is associated with a significant reduction in private-sector pension coverage. Private pension coverage in Indiana is currently greater than in 21 of 22 RTW states but will likely decrease if the state legislature passes the RTW law.

And on this issue, I give you the following from the National Football League Players Association (this issue affects them because the upcoming Super Bowl is going to be played in Indianapolis)…

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana.

The facts are clear—according to a January 2012 Economic Policy Institute briefing report (“Working Hard to Make Indiana Look Bad”), “right-to-work” will lower wages for a worker in Indiana by $1,500 a year because it weakens the ability of working families to work together, and it will make it less likely that working people will get health care and pensions.

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to oppose “right-to-work” efforts, and focus instead on job creation.

And of course, the usual suspects have been propagandizing about “right to work” in the typical manner, as noted here.

Continuing, I give you a rather interesting bit of editorializing from The Old Gray Lady here, concerning Governor Lex Luthor Scott of Florida…

Looking for more savings, Mr. Scott pushed to privatize prisons andMedicaid and to institute drug testing for people seeking public assistance. At the same time, he provoked the ire of environmentalists by reducing financing for the state’s water management districts, directly affecting the environmentally fragile Everglades. Many of the most contentious measures, including drug testing and prison privatization, have landed the state in court.

But the governor had a few failures, too.

Umm…so, “land(ing) the state in court” over drug testing and prison privatization qualifies as “success”?

Also…

Still, Mr. Scott possesses an unshakeable belief in the free market. It is what defines him. At a lunch on Thursday about economic development, he expressed disbelief over the attacks (all-but-named Repug presidential nominee Willard Mitt) Romney has faced for being a successful private equity manager with Bain Capital.

“We shouldn’t be allowing candidates to attack people in business,” he said. “We should be saying, ‘Gosh, that’s us.’ ”

Gee, I wonder if Scott is worried that, if our august corporate media and we humble, filthy, unkempt blogger types each give Romney’s Bain antics the scrutiny they deserve, then maybe, just maybe, more attention will be paid to Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA, the company that “perpetrated the greatest Medicare fraud in U.S. history” according to this (as well as the fact that Scott has now transferred his interest in Solantic, a health care company he co-founded that sells cheap prescription drugs…to his wife)?

Gosh!

Finally, I give you another journey through the looking glass courtesy of Investor’s Business Daily, carping over their claim that there’s a $1.2 trillion “gap” in “Obama’s recovery” because “Real GDP climbed a less-than-expected 2.8% in final quarter of 2011” (here).

In response, I think the following should be noted from here (with a scolding for Number 44 to boot)…

Current-dollar GDP was revised down for all 3 years: $77.6 billion, or 0.5 percent, for 2008; $180.0 billion, or 1.3 percent, for 2009; and $133.9 billion, or 0.9 percent, for 2010. The percent change from the preceding year was revised down from an increase of 2.2 percent to an increase of 1.9 percent for 2008; was revised down from a decrease of 1.7 percent to a decrease of 2.5 percent for 2009; and was revised up from an increase of 3.8 percent to an increase of 4.2 percent for 2010. Current-dollar gross national product (GNP) (GDP plus net receipts of income from the rest of the world) was revised down for all 3 years: $82.9 billion, or 0.6 percent, for 2008; $174.1 billion, or 1.2 percent, for 2009; and $132.8 billion, or 0.9 percent, for 2010… Current-dollar GDP was also revised down for all 4 years from 2004-2007: $14.5 billion for 2004, $15.4 billion for 2005, $21.7 billion for 2006, and $33.1 billion for 2007.

So basically, “current dollar GDP” has been getting “written down” by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis for some time, even predating Obama back to the ruinous reign of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History.

And I think this pretty much tells us why (and how sad is it that a publication in China has such a firm grasp of our predicament, while our supposed genius policy makers continue to caterwaul about “austerity,” insuring nothing but slower growth and/or economic contraction?).

Oh, but look – Romney is outpolling Gingrich in Florida, and the latter just made another speech calling that “Kenyan Muslim Socialist” the “food stamp” president while invoking Saul Alinsky once more.

…

(Sssh, don’t wake the American sheeple – will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?)

Monday Stuff

RIP Dick Tufeld, the voice behind an iconic boomer TV catchphrase for one of the most awful shoes that has ever aired (based on an idea stolen from Gene Roddenberry, by the way – it turned into that whole Kirk, Spock, Bones, U.S.S. Enterprise thing later for Desilu Studios instead)…



…and here is another episode of “Debunktion Junction” (Florida, as usual, does something dumb politically and ends up paying a price, Willard Mitt Romney of 2012 needs to reacquaint himself with the Willard Mitt Romney of 2005, and a South Dakota Indian tribe quite rightly sues for early voting)…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and kudos to St. Louis for their parade honoring our Iraq war vets (and Paul Rieckhoff poses a GREAT question to Mayors Menino and Bloomberg)…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and happy 70th birthday to Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane/Starship/Whatever (sorry, no video).

Sunday Stuff

So RNC head pimp Reince Priebus alleges that President Obama is not unlike the Italian cruise ship captain who ran his ship aground and is, at this moment, “suspected of multiple counts of manslaughter,” as Think Progress tells us here.

…

I know the Repugs will go ever lower accusing Obama of anything they think they can get away with; given that, though, I thought it was a good idea to remind us of a president who did, in fact, get people killed for his own personal motives…



…though Priebus is merely reading from the same delusional script that his ideological fellow travelers are reading from, as Bill Maher notes here (and by the way, the Maher eye-roll towards that moron Dana Rohrabacher was for this...also, "f"-bomb alert here).



Update: God, that doddering old fossil Bob Schieffer is such a corporate media clown (and good call by karoli at C&L to invoke Capt. Sullenberger instead here).

Saturday Stuff

Happy 100th birthday to Jackson Pollock (no, he didn’t live that long - great movie about him with Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden, by the way)...



...and it looks like Allen West is at it again here (you must be so proud, you Floridians dumb enough to actually help elect this sociopath; love Jim Manley's response - he'd better not apologize)...



...also, Martin Bashir is a guy I should pay more attention to, and I’ll try to do so; here is some spot-on commentary about the Repugs (Bashir also appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” this week and looked knowledgeable and a bit funny when I saw him)...



…and yep, it’s time for “Retro Saturday Night” – enjoy.

Saturday Mashup (1/28/12)

I give you BoBo in the New York Times yesterday (here, on the matter of President Obama’s State of the Union speech the other night)…

There was nothing big, like tax reform or entitlement reform. There was no comprehensive effort to restore trust in government by sweeping away the tax credits and special-interest schemes that entangle Washington. Ninety percent of American workers work in the service economy, but Obama spoke mostly about manufacturing.

Instead, there were a series of modest proposals that poll well. In that sense, it was the Democratic version of Newt Gingrich’s original “Contract With America” — a series of medium-size ideas with 80 percent approval ratings.

Of course, the esteemed David Brooks doesn’t provide sourcing for this claim (figures). However, I think the following should be noted from here…

The truth about the fabled Contract With America is much different than (the portrayal by Jeffrey Goldberg in the New Yorker) in fact, he is propping up a thoroughly discredited bit of revisionist history. Rather than being the catalyst for the Republican’s 1994 victory, as many reporters have since portrayed it, the Contract with America actually made its debut only six weeks before the 1994 election, which makes its effect on the outcome a debatable proposition.

What isn’t debatable is that, back in the days before the 1994 election, the Contract’s celebrated “drama and clarity” was lost on the majority of Americans. The fact is, according to an article that appeared in the December 1994/January 1995 issue of Campaigns & Elections, “very few voters were even aware of this contract during the election: just 31 percent had heard of the Contract in a late October [1994] NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

“Moreover, very few Republican candidates ran television ads promoting their signing of the contract, while scores of Democrats ran commercials attacking their opponents for supporting a proposal that would endanger Social Security and Medicare.”

Similarly, a poll taken by New Jersey’s Star-Ledger in Febraury1995 found that 55 percent of New Jersey residents polled “have not read or heard much about” the Contract. The poll also found that “Among those who voted Republican, 55 percent say that the Contract with America was not a reason why they selected their candidate.”

From what I read of these things, apparently Willard Mitt Romney is getting plenty of help from the Repug establishment in deflating the candidacy of Baby Newton Leroy (and some corporate media support too, including this shocking bit of actual reporting from Brooks’s co-worker Sheryl Gay Stolberg). So try as BoBo might, somehow I don’t think all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are going to put the disgraced former U.S. House speaker back together again.

Also (and keeping with the State of the Union), the Doughy Pantload is in high dudgeon (here)…

President Obama's State of the Union address was disgusting.

The president began with a moving tribute to the armed forces and their accomplishments. But as he has done many times now, he celebrated martial virtues not to rally support for the military, but to cover himself in glory -- he killed Osama bin Laden! -- and to convince the American people that they should fall in line and march in lockstep.

He said of the military: "At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach."

That is disgusting.

What Obama is saying, quite plainly, is that America would be better off if it wasn't America any longer. He's making the case not for American exceptionalism, but Spartan exceptionalism.

Umm…here is more context on what Obama actually said…

Think about the America within our reach: a country that leads the world in educating its people; an America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs; a future where we’re in control of our own energy; and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded.

We can do this. I know we can, because we’ve done it before. At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home from combat, they built the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known.

My grandfather, a veteran of Patton’s Army, got the chance to go to college on the G.I. Bill. My grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line, was part of a workforce that turned out the best products on Earth.

The two of them shared the optimism of a nation that had triumphed over a depression and fascism. They understood they were part of something larger, that they were contributing to a story of success that every American had a chance to share: the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.

The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.

Doesn’t sound so “disgusting” after all, does it?

Of course, this is in keeping with the predictable right-wing bloviation on display here…

And does Jonah have a problem with the “within our reach” language? If so, here are more examples from another president (and I’m not checking on Number 43’s veracity here, it should be noted, only the wording)…

For Americans who now purchase health insurance on their own, my proposal would mean a substantial tax savings — $4,500 for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for the millions of other Americans who have no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within their reach.

…

It is in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply — and the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power — by even greater use of clean coal technology ... solar and wind energy ... and clean, safe nuclear power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — using everything from wood chips, to grasses, to agricultural wastes. We have made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies in Washington and the strong response of the market. Now even more dramatic advances are within reach.

And by the way, do you want to know how our pal Jonah rose to prominence to begin with? Check this out…

Goldberg's career as a pundit was launched following his mother Lucianne Goldberg's role in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, when he wrote about the "media siege" on his mother's apartment in The New Yorker.[2][3]

Goldberg has spoken of his mother and the Lewinsky scandal:

My mother was the one who advised Linda Tripp to record her conversations with Monica Lewinsky and to save the dress. I was privy to some of that stuff, and when the administration set about to destroy Lewinsky, Tripp, and my mom, I defended my mom and by extension Tripp... I have zero desire to have those arguments again. I did my bit in the trenches of Clinton's trousers.[4]

And Goldberg is the one telling us what is disgusting?

Finally (and I know I’m a little behind on this), I give you Nike CEO Phil Knight, saying the following during the funeral of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno (here)…

"If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, and not in Joe Paterno's response."

And of course, the remark earned a standing ovation.

Oh, so the investigation is the villain? Not the alleged child-raping activities of Jerry Sandusky, one of Paterno’s coaches? Not “Joe Pa” himself either, of course, for turning the matter over to the trustees and not going public MUCH earlier when the trustees apparently sat on their hands?

Please read this about Nike from October 2009, particularly the following, to understand how Knight allowed those in his employment to be abused, perhaps in not quite as horrific a manner as some of those under Paterno’s charge were abused, but still bad all the same…

… because of the pressure that was placed on Nike by consumers, women workers no longer have to prove they are menstruating to get their legally guaranteed leave. Also, workers are no longer beaten with machetes or threatened at gunpoint for union organizing activity.

However, while we have seen the progress mentioned above, we still have no movement on the two most important issues - Nike workers are still being paid a poverty wage and Nike still refuses to bargain with their workers in good faith.

I’m not going to try and equate Nike’s business practices with the recruiting and coaching activities of Joe Paterno, since I believe there is no comparison. What I’m saying, though, is that, given all this, Phil Knight has no right whatsoever to try and claim the moral high ground here.

So, when it comes to demonizing the accusers of Penn State, including Joe Paterno, I have the following advice for Knight: Just (Don’t) Do It.

(Sorry – too easy).